


Apologies

by amuk



Series: The Road To Life [8]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Separations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-28
Updated: 2013-01-28
Packaged: 2017-11-27 05:18:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/658403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amuk/pseuds/amuk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He saw for the first time what he started that day at the bench, the girl he created, and  there were no amount of apologies that could fix that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apologies

**Author's Note:**

> By request!

For the first time, Sakura asked him to be quiet. If she had asked someone else, it wouldn’t have seemed so odd. If it had been him asking her to be quiet, it would have been normal.

 

(Except, that ‘normal’ came from long ago and didn’t exist anymore.)

 

As it was, even setting was strange. It was silent where they were, the distant clang of metal clashing a background noise. The battle already moved on, deeper into the village, leaving them behind to recover.

 

Or rather, her to recover. Sasuke didn’t need to. With a few minor wounds, he was only there to keep an eye on her and stop any back-up from entering the city. Naruto, recovered already with his Kyuubi chakra, was fighting somewhere. He could tell by the giant explosions classic of the loud shinobi.

 

Bodies lie around them, some broken and twisted beyond recognition. Puddles of blood drenched the grass, the blade tips stained a permanent red. Even though some of the bodies were still alive, they did nothing to impede the creatures coming to feast on the carcasses . Some shinobi were conscious, unable to move due to injuries while others were at their last breathes.

 

Overall, a bleak picture. She lay nearby, her pink locks soaked a dark red and her eyes staring unblinking at the sky. Every now and then she would make the motion to move before stopping herself.

 

“I suppose they need me to heal,” she finally said, her words cutting the silence. Her voice changed a little over the years, he noticed, but then again so did the rest of her. So did all of them.

 

She still didn’t try to get up, momentarily content to just stare at the sky. “I should thank you, for saving me back there. For helping us out. For…” Her eyes flickered to him though she didn’t move her head. “For listening to Naruto and coming back.”

 

“…” He didn’t reply; there was nothing to say.

 

“I guess he really was the only one you’d listen to.” She chuckled, bitterly and broken, and for a moment he saw what he started the moment he left her on the bench.

 

“…Sakura” He started but she stopped him. It used to be vise versa and once again he was caught in unfamiliar ground, the quicksand swallowing him.

 

(He wasn’t sure if he cared or not about this, wasn’t sure what he thought about this except the overriding instinct to _ignoreignoreignore_ like usual. And that wasn’t an option anymore.)

 

“Please, don’t,” she whispered. “Not yet. Please don’t speak. I…I have this picture in my head right now. You’re here because you want to, not because you have nowhere else to go, nothing else to do. Our—my friends are alive and safe and after this is all over, we’ll be a team again or friends at least.” She noticed his frown and hurried on. “I know it’s dangerous, stupid even, to think like that, but at the very least, I want to see this picture for a few more minutes.”

 

 _A few more minutes and then it can return to the frame it will always remain in._ She didn’t say those words but he heard them all the same. Those words weren’t true but he wasn’t the one to say why. 

 

The clangs were getting dimmer and whether it was because the skirmishes were coming to an end or getting further away, he wasn’t certain. He should go and fight, wanted to go and fight in fact, but she drew him in more, halting his decision.

 

She noticed his tension before he did and that hadn’t changed at least. She just wasn’t as good as she used to be at it.

 

“I’m holding you back again.” She sighed, sitting up. “All of that training yet whenever I’m around either of you, I’m that child again. Unable to do anything, never enough.” Standing up, she dusted herself off as she avoided looking at him. “There, we can go now.”

 

He watched her smile at him, an awkward thing of cracks and sharp edges. He still didn’t say anything, still had no words worth muttering.

 

Yet, as he followed her, he felt a tinge of sorrow because he helped create this girl and there were no amount of apologies that could fix that.


End file.
